He joined fellow teenager Jadon Sancho, who was making his maiden competitive start after a fine campaign with Borussia Dortmund, on the field for the final 20 minutes.

Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ben Chilwell, Declan Rice and Harry Winks have also seen minutes under Southgate, who has found the right balance between experienced players and emerging youngsters.

And the ex-Middlesbrough and Aston Villa defender admits Ferguson's nurturing of Ryan Giggs during his spell at Old Trafford has acted as the framework for his own policy.

"I think that comes into everything: how much we expose them to the public, how much we put them into commercial situations," Southgate told the media.

"We've got to be thinking about all of that all of the time because it's very easy for them to enjoy these moments, and they've got to enjoy these moments, but equally, there's a good balance.

"I always think of Sir Alex with Ryan and how he did that so well. They had sustained success because of that.

"So, although they're not our player on a day-to-day basis, I think we've got a responsibility to do that as much as we can, because also we're putting them onto another level and we've got to make sure we get the balance right for the club, but most importantly for the player."

Hudson-Odoi wasted little time making a contribution on his England debut, seeing his saved shot turned into the net by Tomas Kalas at Wembley.

Southgate took the decision to promote the Blues winger into the senior squad after his maiden Under-21 call-up.

And he was not surprised that he immediately adapted to the rigours of senior international football.

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"We've got competition for places and I think with attacking players anyway they mature very young, and they can go in very young," he explained.

"So it's not an issue to play them, and really we've found another player that we really liked [in Hudson-Odoi], but we weren't certain that he'd be able to adapt to this level, and we're a bit fortunate in finding him, in that we probably wouldn't have done that in this camp.

"We'd have given him a bit longer in the U-21s. But already he's proved in this environment that he can more than cope."